LEFTY - When D.C. produced Iron Cross, who many hail as the first American skinhead band, trouble was bound to follow. With D.C.'s Black majority population, Nazi-inspired skinhead racism wasn't going to be business a usual, and one of the ways this manifested itself was surprising. Amazingly, the leader of the early 80s D.C. Skins was not an Aryan, but Kendall Hall, a hulking Black woman, better known as Lefty. Adorned with swastikas, Lefty and her violent followers disrupted shows, stole Doc Martins off kids' feet, brawled with bikers, stomped Jews, gay bashed and most shockingly, supported Reagan. Iron Cross, denouncing their skinhead past, had an anti-Lefty song, "Wolf Pack," on their Hated and Proud ep. (JA)

Chris at EX Teenage Rebel seems to have some good stuff on this era of music and culture

I do remember characters like Lefty, the butch black skingirl (can you say oxymoron?)

I am surprised there is not more on the topic

I do not feel like digging through the skinhead pages on the netas their anger and hatred is, was, and always will be so far from how I care to see the world

oddly enoughthe gwadzilla archive comes up with a mention of Lefty from last Septembermy mind runs in circleslike a dog chasing its tail

lefty...who was she then?where is she now?it is all very curious

as for Skinheadsthey were always known for having more hair than brainsmost of them were wimps grasping for machismo in the mobmost could never stand strong aloneas for the bad asses... well... I am not sure why they wore the uniformas it was a set of idea from another culture which made it more of a costume than a real life personasort of like a white suburban kid acting like they were brought up in Compton

Yeah, I remember her. I'm from Pittsburgh, went down with my friends band. Met her, she has funny. "Those are some nice boots! Look just like my size. Take 'em off!" Not to me(that wouldnt be funny at all!).

I knew Bleu K since Jr High (he was friends with Lawrence McDonald) and as an armchair psychoanalyst there were things about his family that I don't want to write down that struck me as the causes of his attitude problem.

I saw Bleu 12 years ago going to an office dinner, wearing a suit and with a regular haircut. He pretended not to recognize me, but he couldn't ignore the Fugazi member standing next to me, but seemed genuinely remorseful or awkward to be around punx.

I find it hard to believe that the DC skins went after Jews. One of her minions was a Jewish kid I knew named Brian.

I happened to be there when Brian and some other skin I didn't know tried to jack Alec Mackaye's Docs outside of the 9:30, I think at a Black Market Baby show, somewhere around 1986.

Later I heard that it was because of that incident that Dischord wouldn't release the album Black Market Baby had recorded at Inner Ear. Brian was Lefty's bitch and Lefty was tight with Paul Cleary and Alec cried to Ian and everything went to hell. Or so I heard--but most of what I heard about those days was crap.

--The dork with the mullet and the sweater, hanging onto stage right at every show you ever saw

I had heard about her through some Philly/Delaware friends who knew her.Didn't know what to think. Me and some friends went to party in D.C. on 4th of July during Clintons first run as president. There was also a NORML rally that day. Lefty was working a booth handing out pro marijuana literature, wearing a SKREWDRIVER shirt that day. I pointed her out to my friend Steve who was already extremely drunk at like 12pm that day. He wanted to take her picture and she got hostile and threatened to bash him if he didn't move on. Needless to say, he never snapped that picture and we went on our way. I've told people this story a hundred times since then.

I was an intricate part of the scene from its inception. First, all the hype and historical BS written these days iis glorified nonsense. Lefty the skinhead was a sweet kid who was around the scene from the start. A few incidents and all of a sudden she is the leader of a gang of skins. Danny Ingram now claims to be Jewish. What a crock. Back then he had Devo and Adam Ant written on his boots and a nice Nazi (for shock value) badge. Wendol Blow was a super rich kid. DC Rat Pat was started by Dante F , Wendol B, Jason M, and JC. Bryant D was a member but left after a few incidences. How would I know. I was there and stayed in my car during their patrols. You see I was gay. Not all you read is true.

She was so full of it. I knew her from Asylum. She was nice to me but then would make fun of me behind my back. When I realized this, I wrote on the bathroom wall something to the effect that Lefty was a f***ing hypocrite. She says she's a skinhead but she'll hang out with a Jew. (I'm Jewish) I didn't have a death wish, I was just incredibly drunk! After she read it, she went berserk. The owners shoved me into the bathroom & blocked Lefty from getting to me. Ahh, those were the days!

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